Immigration Detention

Chronology of Coverage

Feb. 8, 2015

Wil S Hylton article describes how Obama administration policies governing acceptance of refugees from Latin America have led to deplorable conditions in refugee detention centers; notes that volunteer lawyers who represent refugees have tried to draw attention their plight, particularly of women and children children, to no avail. MORE

Feb. 7, 2015

Homeland Security Dept's investigation into treatment of women and children at immigration detention center in Texas finds no evidence of abuse by guards. MORE

Dec. 16, 2014

Sec of Homeland Security Jeh C Johnson opens nation's largest immigration detention facility in Dilley, Tex; center will hold up to 2,400 migrants who have illegally crossed border, and is especially made for women and children. MORE

Oct. 3, 2014

New York City Council announces proposal that would stop honoring detention requests issued by United States immigration authorities without a warrant from a federal judge; proposal also stipulates even with judge's warrant, Police and Correction Departments may honor a request for a hold only if subject has been convicted of 'violent or serious crime.' MORE

Sep. 6, 2014

Groups of volunteer lawyers who have come to argue immigrant cases at deportation center in Artesia, NM, are transforming nature and purpose of temporary outpost set up to hold illegal immigrants until they could be deported; lawyers, who are counseling nearly 300 women there, argue that as many as 80 percent could now win asylum claims. MORE

Sep. 3, 2014

Homeland Security Dept investigators find no evidence to support claim that young migrants crossing the border illegally had been subject to 'systemic abuse' in detention. MORE

Aug. 26, 2014

Editorial holds treatment of Central American migrants in makeshift detention center in Artesia, NM, contradicts Pres Obama's promise to combine compassion with respect for the law; cites lawsuit filed by coalition of civil-rights organizations against the Obama administration that claims system is rigged so that vulnerable women and children who plead for asylum cannot get it; urges Obama to suspend all deportations until he can create system that treats migrants fairly. MORE

Aug. 23, 2014

Civil rights groups file federal lawsuit claiming that the government committed egregious due process violations against women and children held for deportation at a detention center in New Mexico; lawsuit challenges Obama administration's strategy for deterring illegal border crossings by Central American migrants. MORE

Aug. 6, 2014

Obama administration, in shift to strategy of deterrence, is using family detention centers and a fast track for deportation to discourage Central Americans from heading to the border. MORE

Jul. 30, 2014

Federal government, facing a surge in mothers traveling with children across the border, but few spaces to hold families, is expanding the use of electronic bracelets; decision has set off debate in New York, part of larger national discussion about whether these immigrants should be treated as lawbreakers or refugees. MORE

Jun. 19, 2014

Immigration processing center in Nogales, Ariz, illustrates humanitarian and logistical challenges in attempting to house influx of unaccompanied minors caught illegally crossing the southwest border; facility houses some 900 children in crowded holding pens that provide little comfort or distraction from dire situation. MORE

May. 27, 2014

Immigrant advocates and politicians are seeking to add courthouses to list of locations where immigration agents must refrain from questioning or detaining immigrants; move is in response to growing trend in which immigrants have been questioned and detained in courthouses, eroding their willingness to participate in the judicial system. MORE

May. 25, 2014

Federal government is relying on tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to provide essential labor at detention centers where they are held when caught by the authorities; work program, in which immigrants are paid $1 a day or less, is facing increasing resistance from detainees and criticism from immigrant advocates. MORE

Apr. 19, 2014

Sheriffs in nine Oregon counties will no longer hold people in jail based on requests from federal immigration authorities after federal magistrate in Portland case rules such a request violated an immigrant's rights; Oregon decision is latest of several federal rulings raising doubts about constitutionality of detainers, which federal authorities routinely issue to state and local police asking them to hold foreigners they have arrested for additional time. MORE

Feb. 24, 2014

Editorial contends growing number of rulings ordering bond hearings for immigrants detained indefinitely in the United States reflect a growing understanding that the constitutional guarantee of due process has not been met in many cases; urges Pres Obama to ensure that a six-month rule for hearings for detainees be adopted nationwide. MORE

Feb. 3, 2014

Five Sri Lankan men who paid $55,000 each to be smuggled into America have been in immigration jails since late 2010; men cooperated with the FBI in an investigation of their smugglers, which they believed would work in their favor as their cases made their way through immigration courts; experts say the cases highlight the subjective nature of immigration enforcement. MORE

Dec. 6, 2013

Laws passed by the New York City Council over past two years have sought to restrict prisoner transfer agreements with federal authorities; city, in response to federal requests, has long transferred foreign-born detainees into federal custody, often leading to their deportation; restrictions on this cooperative agreement from City Council appear to be achieving their goal, prompting guarded celebration among immigrants' advocates. MORE

Nov. 7, 2013

New York Immigrant Family Unity Project addresses concerns that lack of competent legal representation results in unnecessary deportations and government costs; contends that defendants in immigration court have no constitutional right to court-appointed lawyer and that fear and ignorance conspire with language barriers and poverty to keep detainees from securing legal counsel. MORE

Oct. 18, 2013

Juana Villegas, detained Mexican woman who was shackled to her hospital bed while giving birth in Nashville, will receive $490,000 in a settlement and has the prospect of a resident visa. MORE

Aug. 13, 2013

Arrest of rape suspect in open-air market in Moscow snowballs into sweeping government campaign against illegal immigrants in Russia; nearly 1,500 foreigners, many of them Vietnamese, have been detained in raids across city and are being held in a Moscow tent camp under conditions that Human Rights Watch called inhuman. MORE

Aug. 13, 2013

Orleans Parish sheriff will no longer honor requests from federal immigration authorities to detain people who are suspected of being in country illegally, making New Orleans one of a growing number of jurisdictions to adopt such a policy and the first to do so in the Deep South. MORE

Jun. 5, 2013

Human rights groups criticize Italy's detention centers where illegal immigrants are held in prison-like conditions, sometimes for months, before being deported; say they are inhumane, ineffective and costly. MORE

Apr. 25, 2013

Federal Judge Dolly M Gee orders immigration courts in California, Arizona and Washington State to provide legal representation for immigrants with mental disabilities who are in detention and facing deportation, if they cannot represent themselves; decision is first time court has required government to provide legal assistance for any group of people before nation’s immigration courts. MORE

Apr. 2, 2013

Editorial expresses dismay at frequency with which illegal immigrants are subjected to solitary confinement, extreme form of punishment that risks causing severe mental damage; contends if Janet Napolitano, homeland security secretary, does not stop practice, Congress should step in. MORE

Mar. 31, 2013

News analysis; question of whether immigrants who are incarcerated in United States while their legal status is resolved deserve lawyer is being hotly debated; all sides say that their approach would end up saving money. MORE

Mar. 27, 2013

Homeland Security Sec Janet Napolitano asks federal immigration officials to provide more information about immigrants being held in solitary confinement at federal facilities, noting that it should be used only in exceptional cases. MORE

Mar. 24, 2013

New federal data shows that on any given day, about 300 immigrants are held in solitary confinement at Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers; nearly half are isolated for 15 days or more, point at which psychiatric experts say they are at risk for severe mental harm; United States has come under sharp criticism at home and abroad for relying on solitary confinement in its prisons more than any other democratic nation in world. MORE

Mar. 20, 2013

John T Morton, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testifies in House hearing that decision to release more than 2,200 immigrants from detention in February was solely a budgetary savings measure; disputes Republican accusations that group included many dangerous criminals. MORE

Feb. 28, 2013

Mayor Michael R Bloomberg is expected to sign two bills passed by the City Council expanding restrictions on New York City’s cooperation in federal efforts to deport immigrants; bills were introduced in response to Secure Communities, federal program that is a cornerstone of Obama administration's immigration enforcement strategy and which has drawn opposition from immigrants' advocates. MORE

Feb. 27, 2013

Federal immigration officials have released hundreds of detainees from detention centers around country in unusual effort to save money as automatic budget cuts loom; although government has not dropped deportation cases, decision angers many Republicans, who say releases were political gambit by Obama administration that undermines continuing negotiations over immigration reform and jeopardizes public safety. MORE

Jan. 8, 2013

Report issued by nonpartisan research group Migration Policy Institute shows that Obama administration spent $18 billion on immigration enforcement in 2012, significantly more than was spent on all other major federal law enforcement agencies combined. MORE

Dec. 13, 2012

New York City Council members will propose legislation to further limit city's cooperation with federal authorities seeking to detain and deport immigrants under Secure Communities, federal immigration-enforcement plan allowing fingerprints from local or county prison bookings to be sent to Homeland Security Dept; council bills would reaffirm New York's reputation as one of nation's most immigrant-friendly municipalities. MORE

Oct. 5, 2012

Sep. 8, 2012

Homeland Security Dept reports that immigration enforcement authorities detained and deported record numbers of illegal immigrants in 2011 and are on track for similar figures in 2012, even as the numbers of migrants crossing the border illegally dropped to a 40-year low. MORE

Aug. 29, 2012

Some California sheriffs are pushing back against a proposed state law the Trust Act that would bar law enforcement officers from detaining illegal immigrants for deportation if they have not been charged with serious or violent crimes. MORE

Aug. 18, 2012

United Nations warns that Australia's plan to reopen detention centers on remote Pacific islands for asylum seekers and migrants who arrive by sea could violate their human rights and harm their mental health. MORE

Jun. 18, 2012

Rising tensions in Israel caused by the presence of about 60,000 African immigrants and asylum seekers has prompted the government to announce a tough new policy in which all new arrivals are immediately placed in detention and deported; clampdown disturbs many Israelis, who find mass detentions and roundups too close to their own families' experiences during the Holocaust. MORE

May. 10, 2012

Editorial criticizes effort by the Obama administration to repair the Secure Communities program, which deputizes state and local police in its hunt for illegal immigrants, by reducing the deportations of traffic violators; fears program will still ensnare far too many minor offenders and noncriminals, exposing them to harassment, detention and deportation. MORE

Apr. 3, 2012

Letter from Rep Lamar Smith responds to March 28 Edwidge Danticat Op-Ed article on the treatment of immigration detainees. MORE

Mar. 29, 2012

Chris Crane, the president of Council 118 of the American Federation of Government Employees, says in House testimony that new rules issued by the Obama administration for immigration detention centers nationwide are flawed and would make the system more dangerous; testimony is a new sign of a deep rift between top immigration officials and some agents on the ground, as the administration makes ambitious changes in deportations policy and detention practices. MORE

Mar. 28, 2012

Op-Ed article by author Edwidge Danticat criticizes House Judiciary Committee's flippant title Holiday on ICE for its hearings on new guidelines for immigration detention; says title and the hearings themselves show a blatant disregard for the more than 110 immigrants who have died in detention under questionable circumstances since 2003. MORE

Mar. 14, 2012

Federal immigration detention center in Karnes County, Tex., is the first to be built under new guidelines intended to improve living conditions and provide a less punitive setting; detainees will be free to move through much of the center 24 hours a day amid unarmed staff members while awaiting immigration hearings. MORE

Dec. 25, 2011

Editorial highlights a report done by the Cardozo Law Review that reveals that there is a severe shortage of competent legal assistance for tens of thousands of people held in immigration detention in New York; argues that the review of all deportation cases before the immigration courts announced by the Obama administration should be extended to cases in the federal appellate courts; urges private foundations and bar associations to create programs that put young lawyers to work full time on immigrant issues. MORE

Dec. 15, 2011

Essex County, NJ, unanimously approves a previously withdrawn contract with Community Education Centers to house federal immigrant detainees; in earlier negotiations, questions were raised about the company's close ties to Gov Chris Christie and the bidding was canceled; advocacy groups for immigrants oppose the action, saying that neither the county government nor a private company should profit from immigrant detention. MORE

Dec. 14, 2011

Growing number of American citizens are being detained after federal immigration agents, acting on flawed Homeland Security information, instruct local police to hold them for investigation and possible deportation; Americans are reporting that their claims of citizenship have gone unheeded for days; detentions of citizens are part of a widening impact on Americans, as well as immigrants, of the Obama administration's enforcement policies. MORE

Dec. 5, 2011

Editorial contends Obama administration has failed in its promise to overhaul nation's immigration detention system that confines nearly 400,000 people a year as they await deportation or asylum; says centers should make greater use of alternatives for people who pose no danger, and that detainees should have better access to courts to challenge their detention. MORE

Nov. 9, 2011

New York Civil Liberties Union and Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University issue report that compares actions of US Border Patrol near Canadian border to racial profiling; Border Patrol agents have been inspecting passenger IDs on domestic trains and buses and arresting or detaining illegal immigrants, a tactic that immigrant-rights advocates argue is unconstitutional. MORE

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Further Reading

A page of resources on the topic of in-custody deaths, including past coverage of deaths in immigration custody in The Times and other newspapers, links to information around the Web, an interactive map of immigration detention facilities and more.

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November 23, 2014, Sunday

The international community has been critical of Canberra’s decision to close its borders to travelers from Ebola-affected nations — but it’s only the most recent debacle in a series of anti-immigration policy moves.

No country has more completely outsourced immigration enforcement — with more troubled results — than Australia. Two investigations, from 2011 and 2004, identified areas of noncompliance and breaches of detainees’ human rights.

No country has more completely outsourced immigration enforcement — with more troubled results — than Australia. Two investigations, from 2011 and 2004, identified areas of non-compliance and breaches of detainees human rights.